Thomas Tuchel tells his England stars to stop being ‘the biggest danger to ourselves’ as they hunt for first clean sheet in seven following Spain errors
Thomas Tuchel has accused his England defence of being a danger to themselves.
They have not kept a clean sheet in six games since beating Panama at the World Cup, a run during which they have conceded 13 goals and leaked seven against Spain and France on their last two outings.
It might have been worse had Spain capitalised on a sequence of good early chances, mostly brought about by England’s errors in possession, but Tuchel claimed to have no great concerns about the broader elements of defending.
Only that his team must kick the habit of self-destruction.
‘We suffered from individual mistakes when we had the ball, especially in deep build-up,’ said Tuchel, ahead of Tuesday’s Nations League tie against the Czech Republic in Prague.
‘It’s something that we cannot repeat, especially not at this kind of level.
Thomas Tuchel has urged England to start taking more care in possession as they hunt a first clean sheet in seven games
The Three Lions shipped three against Spain on Sunday and will face Czechia on Tuesday
‘To take care of this, we have to be technically absolutely clinical, under pressure. We need to improve these things. Strangely enough, when we had the ball, we were the biggest danger to ourselves around our box.
‘But purely defending, no concerns. I trust we can do it. Some players of course are not here, who would also help organising our defensive block, I don’t have any reason to be concerned.’
James Trafford will continue in goal in Prague, winning his fourth cap with Jordan Pickford set to return for games against Croatia on Saturday and the Czech return next week at Wembley.
Tuchel added: ‘The last two matches, 6-4 against France and 2-3 v Spain, in itself seven goals in two matches is very unusual. I understand the question. I’m not concerned yet.
‘I didn’t see a pattern. We defended very well in a block when we were organized, but we had just big individual mistakes. But I could not see any defensive pattern that would concern me.
‘I felt that we defended much more disciplined, cohesive and organised than in some matches in the World Cup. That was a step in the right direction. We constantly pushed out from our middle block, we tried to go into the opponent’s half and pushed out of the deep block.
‘We didn’t suffer too for long periods of time in defending. We never lost our structure. So from all these things I’m not concerned. The result was heavily influenced by some individual mistakes that can happen, but the result was influenced but not the performance.’
